the Gat brothers, Aryeh and Gil, sang another Arik Einstein song in their semi-finals performance of Hakochav Haba. This song is called "Hu Chazar bTshuva". They did a phenomenal job and were duly rewarded with the highest score of all the performers, and have advanced further to the next round (not yet finals but round 2 of semi-finals)..

While I have said their performance is wonderful and is great for breaking steretypes, in and of itself I don't think a couple Haredi-dressed guys performing secular music (or jewish music for that matter) qualifies as a kiddush hashem... I still think that, but I think I need to qualify it by adding that their performance surrounding the actual performance is a kiddush hashem. For example, not shown in this video but it can be seen if you go to the Hakochav Haba website and watch the original video, in an interview before the performance, they were asked about how they feel, if they are scared, about the competition and about being seen on-screen davening... they mentioned they are not davening for the failure of their opponent (the semi-finals pits them in a head to head competition with one of the other performers) and they are not looking to crush him. What they are davening for is a good performance of their own and that Hashem should do the right thing for them, whether it is win or lose. it is the way they conduct themselves surrounding their performances that makes the kiddush hashem.




here is the original...